The Body of Christ in Ephesians 3 and 6
Ephesians 3 reveals that the Body of Christ is the fullness of the Triune God by our being supplied with the riches of Christ and by Christ’s making His home in our hearts: “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith…” (Eph. 3:16-17).
We need to pray daily to be strengthened into our inner man so that the Triune God may carry out His unique work to build Himself in Christ into our hearts for Him to become our intrinsic constitution for the mutual abode of God and man. (HWMR The Direction of the Lord’s Move Today, Week 2, IV.C)
Ephesians 6 reveals that the Body of Christ is also the corporate warrior of the Triune God for the defeating of God’s enemy: “Finally, be empowered in the Lord and in the might of His strength. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the stratagems of the devil, for our wrestling is not against blood and flesh…” (Eph. 6:10-12).
Spiritual warfare is not an individual matter but a matter of the Body. The church as the Body is a corporate warrior, and only the corporate warrior can wear the whole armor of God (Eph. 6:10-20). Prayer is the unique, crucial, and vital means by which we apply the whole armor of God, making every item of the armor of God available to us. (VII.A,C)
Cooperating with God to Carry Out His Move
“I will be ready always to remind you concerning these things, even though you know them and have been established in the present truth.” (2 Peter 1:12)
The full ministry of Christ [is] in three stages (incarnation, inclusion, and intensification), and this is the central revelation of God and the present truth. (Special Conference, msg 1, IV.B)
We need to do a work of three sections: a work in the stage of incarnation to produce redeemed people, a work in the stage of inclusion to produce the churches, and a work in the stage of intensification to produce the overcomers to build up the Body, which consummates in the New Jerusalem as the unique goal of God’s economy. (IV.B.4)
We “do not cease praying and asking on your behalf that you may be filled with the full knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthily of the Lord to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work…” (Col. 1:9-10).
Cal State University Bakersfield
This Thursday will be the start of several weekly exploratory visits to CSUB. The church in Bakersfield has homes open for students and one staff member and a few students on campus. The purpose of the visits, by two full-timers from CSUN, is to cherish, nourish, and perfect our CSUB students so that through them the Lord can gain remaining fruit.
Germany
The web site http://lordsmove.org/oldsite/reportspecial2017.html has audios in four languages of the
fellowship on Germany given after Message 5 of the recent Special Conference in Anaheim. This site also has the 2017 Spring Germany Report and other material.
The Spring Report and http://germany.lebensstrom.de describe four directions of labor in Germany:
- Five-week trips for shepherding and perfecting refugee believers;
- Five-week trips for the gospel on college campuses;
- Distribution of Recovery Version NTs (see next prayer topic);
- Migration for the practical strengthening and building up of the local churches in six key cities. Let us “beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest” (Matt.
9:38) to fully meet the need in each of these four directions. Ask the Lord to include some from L.A. among those He would thrust out.
Bibles for Europe
This year, 2017, marks the 500th anniversary of the Reformation begun by Martin Luther. Luther translated the Bible from Greek into German. This opened the Word for the first time to common people, and we want to complete our brother’s work by distributing hundreds of thousands of Recovery Version NTs. Because of this momentous anniversary, people will be particularly aware of the Bible this year.
We propose to distribute Bibles in Germany via advertising and the Internet throughout the year, as well as by direct distribution at certain events and at 70 universities during the week following the October ITERO in Leipzig. This work will begin immediately and continue throughout 2017.
Each time we go out, approximately half of the people who receive a NT ask for further contact. We believe that this is because of people’s respect for the Bible and their desire to understand it. We are burdened to get this ministry to as many seeking Europeans as possible. Lord, sow Your truth through us!
In order to print hundreds of thousands of NTs, LSM needs to place an order by the end of March. Those who wish to give to meet this urgent need can give to the church in L.A. designated for ‘BfE’.
Lyon, France
Last October, thanks to two brothers with student status, we started a weekly Bible reading time inside one of the campuses here. The new contacts who come regularly have increased from two to five. After this fall, our two brothers will move away for internships. This is an urgent request to pray for at least one student to be raised up in the same university so we can continue our Bible reading together.
South Africa
Brother Michael Stewart is in Pretoria for this week and next with FTT Pretoria, followed by the national conference March 10 to 12.
Pakistan
There are four churches in Pakistan, the 6th largest country in the world by population. All the labor is in Christian communities (about 4 million people); there is no direct outreach to Muslim communities. Here are some recent highlights:
- In November, the church in Karachi (the largest city) established a second district.
- In December, 35 saints attended a three-day training on “Returning to the Orthodoxy of the Church.”
- Every Saturday afternoon, a dozen saints in Islamabad meet together to learn English by listening to messages from the 2016 Thanksgiving Conference; around 25 saints meet at 5 am for morning revival.
- Many localities have begun memorizing portions of the Urdu Bible—one book per month.
- Two sisters from Lahore are attending the Full-Time Training in Indonesia.
Please pray:
- for the strengthening of the saints with power through His Spirit into the inner man;
- that more remaining fruits be added to the local churches (specifically, in Islamabad, the goal is to increase Lord’s Table attendance from 75 to 127 by August of this year);
- for more diligent and knowledgeable translators to translate the ministry materials into Urdu;
- for a suitable venue and practical arrangements for a one-month Perfecting Training this summer.
Announcements
- Morning revival: Week 2 in The Direction of the Lord’s Move Today (Thanksgiving Conference).
- The International Memorial Day Conference will be May 26 to 29 in White Plains, New York. Information about the conference and hotels is at https://churchinlosangeles.org/prayer/. Saints from L.A. who plan to attend are asked to RSVP before April 30 at http://www.tinyurl.com/memdayla (adults) and http://www.tinyurl.com/memchildrenla (children).
- There will be a conference in Atlanta May 5 to 7 on the gospel to all the nations. The burden is to find a way to contact, labor among, and gain people of African descent to be part of His expression in the Body. For more information, contact churchinatlanta@gmail.com.